Fandom: Bleach

Title: Wilderness and Wind, Mages and Order - Excerpts

Pairing/Characters: Future ByakuyaxIchigo

Summary: [This is an excerpt from a story that I intend to be larger, but as of right now it is a scattered collection of scenes.] In the wake of warring states, when the mages have largely been swept away and magic is in the hands of the few, Kuchiki Byakuya needs to think of his town first. He needs to keep Karakura Town safe. But how can he do that when Kurosaki Ichigo is invoking his noble right to return home? How can he do that when a wild caster seeks refuge?

Length: This part is about 750-ish words

Rating: Soft Teen, nothing very smutty or gore-y (yet) but there is a bit of fighting.

It was a fight of the winds.

Ichigo fought with a strong disadvantage- his Western and Eastern winds were hampered by the cliffs- and he cursed himself for having fallen into the trap. Byakuya stood tall at the left cliff, his sword still sheathed, and the look of muted bliss on his face betrayed the wind that Ichigo felt whoosh down the tunnel, and he held in a cry as the ashes and debris ran into his back. Idly Byakuya heard a sick sound as the rocks pierced deeper into his skin and hit his bones; when Byakuya looked at him he saw that Ichigo's left shoulderblade was cracked under the flesh, the arm spasmed and twitched and could not hold the other sword.

Ichigo's face contorted but he gave a savage look to Byakuya. He gave his own grimace when Ichigo called forth a landslide. Byakuya tore down the cliff as he escaped the rocks on his heels. He softened his landing with a small breeze but in the small stumble, Ichigo had yanked the normal sword from Byakuya's right hand and threw it to the side. Byakuya pivoted back, his remaining sword swapping over to his dominant hand and he weighted himself back to kick if he had to. Unexpectedly, Ichigo called forth a series of gusts of wind to push him forward. Unable to recover his footing, Byakuya stretched out his hand to spring up when he landed but Ichigo instead gently pressed his fingertip to his falling chest.

Tumble he muttered, and Byakuya felt his limbs go numb, a sensation akin to tingling yawned from his toes to torso and he imagined that was what it must be like to fall off a cliff. He landed on the ground, his physical presence thoroughly dazed but his mind was lethargically aware.

He had never seen a spell like that before, without materials or complex movements, it was- in its way- a thing of beauty. A simple word and flow of power that belied a deep strength and control he would not have assigned to the other.

Ichigo looked down at him, perhaps there was mourning in his eyes, but he gently stretched Byakuya out of the awkward position he had fallen in so that he smoothly leaned against a flat boulder on the sand.

He looked at Byakuya a moment.

Then Ichigo turned from him a short distance and began to heave emptily into the grass, sweat dampening his shoulders and brow. Anguish and pain twisted his eyes, the shut lids ashy, and Byakuya dimly turned his head to look at his gagging opponent. In that moment, he could not see him as anything but utterly human, had he been able to fight, he would not have made a move to wound him while he retched and wept.

After a while he stopped and turned back to Byakuya. He stood up from his knees, quivering slightly at the knees from weariness.

"It should be wearing off now, yeah?" he said tiredly, and Byakuya nodded with a great effort, his limbs were still numb, but he could feel awareness creeping onto his limbs. Ichigo pulled the blade out from his left sheath, then his right, using his uninjured arm, and set them beside the sitting Byakuya. Dimly, Byakuya's fingers began to quietly reach for his blade when Ichigo gave him a tired look. Still, Byakuya braced himself for some sort of witchcraft and straightened his stance.

"You realize we must finish," Byakuya stated, his voice a veiled threat and a comradely statement all at once.

Ichigo's face was unreadable- and Byakuya was about to stop Ichigo's incanting, he was about to bind him with iron when Ichigo's lips parted, but instead heard his formal tone "The Kurosaki Clan takes the right to return home."

[This part comes much later, but the connecting scenes aren't really complete– but I figured you guys might like to see what the rest would be like]

He was meditating, his limbs gently balanced against the floor, and Byakuya searched for a sign of unnaturalness in the moment.

He cracked an eye open, and Byakuya was mildly pleased to see the eye was a pretty brown: they matched well with his skin and hair colour and make a pleasantly handsome image.

He stared blankly at the wall, and then his face softened to a muted sadness, "My heart doesn't beat right anymore," he confessed, "I pass out, I tire easily, I can't move as well as I used to."

As always, please review! As of right now, this story is what it is. If people show an interest in this, I am much more likely to write more!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ALL THE STUFF I AM WORKING ON CHECK OUT MY TUMBLR [fadedempire . tumblr . com] I will be posting chapters, drabbles, head canons, and general thought there. While I hope to update some stuff and post a story or two I'm working on, lots of what will be on my tumblr will be things that are in-progress. I'm sort of hoping that posting it there will a. get me some feedback and b. help me finish them because people like them.

Would you like to beta-read some of my stuff and help me sort out my thoughts? Would you like to suggest/debate different ways these stories could go? Just want to say hello? Send me a message!